No extensive schemes were carried out in Rothesay during Bute's tenure of the provostship; but it is of interest to note that whereas the harbour had been greatly improved, and gas first introduced into the town, during the time (1829-1839) that his father was provost, he himself, during his term of office, made a large extension of the pier, and introduced the electric light. He also interested himself in the sanitary improvement of the burgh, and entertained the members of the Sanitary Congress, which met at Rothesay in 1898, at a garden party at Mountstuart. Following his own precedent at Cardiff, St. Andrews, and Falkland, he presented to the corporation a beautiful chain of office for the use of the provosts.
The occurrence of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee during Bute's provostship gave occasion for his further munificence; and in commemoration of the event he placed in the council-chambers a series of heraldic stained-glass windows. To each of the Town Councillors he presented a replica of the medal which he and the other provosts of Scottish burghs received at a special audience given to them by the Queen. Bute gave pleasure to the councillors by reminding them that the Scriptural quotation on the obverse of the medal—"Longitudo dierum in dextera ejus, et in sinistra gloria"[[12]]—would probably be more familiar to them all in the rendering of the Scottish Paraphrase:
In her right hand she holds to view
A length of happy days:
Riches with splendid honours joined
Are what her left displays.
Bute himself drafted the jubilee address from the corporation to her Majesty, and had it engrossed in facsimile after the original charter to the burgh of the year 1400 A.D., preserved in the British Museum. Sealed with the ancient seal of the burgh, and enclosed in a box made of the old oak beams of the drawbridge of Rothesay Castle, lined with cloth of gold, the address was, at Bute's instance, presented to the Queen by H.R.H. the Duke of Rothesay (Prince of Wales). It was one of the very few addresses on exhibition in London, where it aroused considerable attention and admiration.
An anniversary of more personal interest to Bute in the spring of 1897 was his own "silver wedding day." The event was celebrated with quiet happiness in the family circle, and, later in the year, by a great reception in the Exhibition-building at Cardiff, at which some three thousand guests were entertained. Bute, who received a congratulatory address on the occasion, enclosed in a silver casket, from his Town Council at Rothesay, gave public and permanent expression to his thankfulness for twenty-five years of happy married life, by instituting both there and at Cardiff, what came to be known as the "Bute Dowry." This was the provision of an annual sum to be handed, on the recommendation of the municipal authorities, to some girl or girls of the poorer classes, to enable her to get married. The religious spirit in which Bute founded this benefaction is seen from a letter he addressed to the minister of Rothesay, announcing his intention of attending on the first occasion of the dowry being awarded:
Mountstuart,
December 23, 1897.
I will put on the chain, but not, I think, the gown, as I will leave the religious ceremony entirely to you; and I think it would be better if you read John ii. 1-11 (as well as the passage from Ephesians). The only reason why I stipulated for the reading of John ii. 1-11 as a part of the ceremony, was to impress the idea that that marriage is truly blessed to which Jesus is called by humble prayer, and at which nothing takes place but the natural and harmless gaiety which is consonant with His sacred presence and approval. It does not matter at all who reads it.
1899, Failing health
The success of Bute's three years' tenure of the office of provost was proved by the unanimity with which the council, at its conclusion, expressed its wish that he would accept re-election for another term. This would have included the fifth centenary of the erection of the royal burgh, which it was proposed to celebrate in 1900; and Bute, notwithstanding his rapidly failing powers (of which no one was more conscious than himself), consented to be nominated for a second term on certain conditions, one of which was that he should be permitted to resign the office immediately after the centenary. In his letter thanking the council for their invitation he thus alluded to his state of health:
I spoke of this, when I first entered on the provostship, by saying that I realised that circumstances might arise in which I should feel myself unable any longer to be of service to the burgh, and should consequently be obliged to resign; but that in any case nothing could reverse the past or delete the fact of the honour of the office having once been conferred upon me. Should the council re-elect me, I can only say the same thing again.... I take this opportunity of thanking each and all of the Members of Council for the honour they have paid me now for the second time, as well as for all the kindness which I have always received at their hands.